Bay Regional Monitoring Program

This document was prepared with guidance gained through two RMP Sediment Workgroup workshops held in late 2022 and early 2023. Given the variety of participants involved, this Workplan encompasses interests beyond San Francisco Bay RMP funders. We thank the attendees for their contributions. 

In 2020, the Sediment Workgroup (SedWG) of the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP) completed a Sediment Monitoring and Modeling Strategy (SMMS) which laid out a conceptual level series of data and information gaps and generally recommended the use of both empirical data collection and modeling tools to answer initial high priority management questions (McKee et al., 2020). At the time, the SMMS promoted the use of surrogates such as time-continuous turbidity measurements for cross-section flux modeling within the Bay without an understanding of existing Bay hydrodynamic models, their strengths, weaknesses, and potential uses for understanding coupled Bay-mudflat-marsh processes. Since then, the Wetland Regional Monitoring Program (WRMP, www.wrmp.org) has generally promoted the use of coupling monitoring and modeling techniques to inform wetlands sediment management decisions. In addition, he completion of the Sediment for Survival report (a RMPEPA funded collaboration) and the further development of sediment conceptual models has also advanced the need for a coupled dynamic modeling and monitoring program that has the capacity to explore more complex management questions (Dusterhoff et al., 2021; SFEI, 2023). Such a program will take time to develop, but will be more cost-efficient and adaptable and allow for more timely answers to pressing questions. 

This report details plans associated with the 2023 Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in the San Francisco Estuary (RMP) water cruise. The RMP water sampling program was redesigned in 2002 to adopt a randomized sampling design at thirty-one stations in place of the twenty-six base program stations sampled previously. In 2007, the number of stations was decreased to twenty-two stations, and it remains as such for 2023. The analytes for 2023 are based on the Status and Trends (S&T) Review process that started in 2020.

This report details plans associated with the pilot near-field water sampling for the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP). The RMP recently reviewed the Status & Trends (S&T) Program and added a pilot effort to quantify contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in Bay water in areas near (“near-field” of) expected loading pathways during or shortly after storm events and during the dry season. For the first year of the pilot (Water Year 2022), the near-field design included three targeted, near-field stations and four ambient Bay stations. Subsequent years added a fourth near-field station. Samples will be collected at these stations during or shortly after two storm events, and once in the dry season. The analytes that are being measured include bisphenols, organophosphate esters (OPEs), PFAS, and a suite of stormwater CECs.

This is a sampling and analysis plan for the Bay Status and Trends (S&T) Prey Fish and Near-field / Margins Sediment monitoring for the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP). Bay margins are defined by the RMP as extending from Mean Higher High Water (MHHW) to 1 foot below Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW). These mud flats and adjacent shallow areas of the Bay are productive and highly utilized by biota of interest (humans and wildlife). Near-field stations are located near watershed inputs in the Bay. Prey fish are a key matrix to monitoring the status and impacts of contaminants, especially near margin areas where they have shown strong contamination signals in previous RMP studies. This monitoring design provides a spatially-distributed characterization of contaminant concentrations in fish and sediment found within the margins of Central Bay, South Bay, and Lower South Bay. This study builds on previous S&T efforts to characterize surface sediment contamination across the Bay while piloting routine monitoring of prey fish. Additional samples outside of S&T will be collected for special studies. A subset of samples will be archived for potential future analysis of emerging contaminants or other analyte groups.

This report details plans associated with the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in the San Francisco Estuary (RMP) deep bay sediment cruise. The RMP, through the Status and Trends monitoring program, conducts routine monitoring of water, sediment and biological tissue. Deep bay stations (water depth lower than 1 foot below MLLW) have been sampled for the Status and Trends sediment program since its inception.  The current monitoring design (reflective of changes made to the Program through the Status and Trends Review process) calls for sampling frequency of deep bay sediment for CECs, PBDEs, and ancillary analytes every five years during the dry season. Every ten years, metals, PAHs, and PCBs will also be sampled. For 2023, sampling operations will entail dry season sample collection at 16 RMP sediment sampling stations for CECs, PBDEs, and ancillary analytes in Central Bay, South Bay, and Lower South Bay.

The overarching goal of the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP) is to answer the highest priority scientific questions faced by managers of Bay water quality. The RMP is an innovative collaboration between the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, the regulated discharger community, the San Francisco Estuary Institute, and many other scientists and interested parties. The purpose of this document is to provide a concise overview of recent RMP activities and findings, and a look ahead to significant products anticipated in the next two years. The report includes:

• a brief summary of some of the most noteworthy findings of this multifaceted Program;
• a description of the management context that guides the Program; and
• a summary of progress to date and future plans for addressing priority water quality topics.

This document summarizes a study conducted for the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP) to re-evaluate the use of the Floating Percentile Method
(FPM) to derive sediment screening guidelines for dredged material reuse in the San Francisco Bay Region. The Long Term Management Strategy (LTMS) has a goal to use at least 40% of the sediment dredged from San Francisco Bay for beneficial reuse (USACE, 1998). The suitability of dredged sediment for beneficial reuse is in part determined by concentrations of toxic pollutants.The San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board (SFB-RWQCB) issued draft screening criteria in 2000 to categorize the suitability of sediment for reuse as either “surface” sediment, that may be placed near the surface for re-use in wetlands, or “foundation” sediment, that is buried under sediment that meets surface criteria. Contaminant concentration guidelines for surface sediment are lower than foundation sediment, based on the assumption that biota are more likely to be exposed to surface sediment than deeper foundation sediment.